{"id":294539,"date":"2023-10-28T04:13:45","date_gmt":"2023-10-28T04:13:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/?p=294539"},"modified":"2023-10-28T04:13:45","modified_gmt":"2023-10-28T04:13:45","slug":"messi-invited-to-play-on-argentinas-olympic-team-by-mascherano","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/soccer\/messi-invited-to-play-on-argentinas-olympic-team-by-mascherano\/","title":{"rendered":"Messi invited to play on Argentina&apos;s Olympic team by Mascherano"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Lionel Messi is invited to play on Argentina&#8217;s Olympic team by Javier Mascherano, but Inter Miami star looks doubtful to participate with Copa America during the same summer<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Lionel Messi won a gold medal with Argentina in the 2008 Olympics<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>And he could have the chance to repeat the feat next summer in Paris<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>DailyMail.com provides all the latest international sports news<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Lionel Messi has an open invite to play with Argentina&#8217;s Olympic squad next summer &#8211; though it remains to be seen if he&#8217;d actually accept it.<\/p>\n<p>The Argentine U-20 team, which has yet to qualify for the Paris Olympics, is coached by Messi&#8217;s old friend and former teammate Javier Mascherano.<\/p>\n<p>And the ex-Barcelona and Liverpool man would love to see the Inter Miami star play for his group.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Leo has an open door to the national team to do whatever he wishes\u2014that&#8217;s the reality,&#8217; Mascherano said, via Marca.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;If we end up qualifying [for the Olympics] and he wants to go, he will be welcome. My relationship with him is that of a great friendship and I would love it.&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach would also love to see Messi in Paris.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/27\/15\/77084749-0-image-a-25_1698417877210.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Lionel Messi could make a sensational return to Olympic soccer under Javier Mascherano<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/27\/15\/77084301-0-image-a-16_1698417536909.jpg\" height=\"419\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Lionel Messi, Javier Mascherano and Luis Suarez of Barcelona celebrate after the 2015 Champions League Final vs. Juventus<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/27\/15\/77084753-12680503-image-a-26_1698417989873.jpg\" height=\"424\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Messi and Nigerian forward Victor Obinna (R) fight for the ball in the 2008 Olympics<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It would be fantastic if he could be here,&#8217; Bach said. &#8216;For Lionel Messi, it would mean a chance to write history once again. He could be the only player in history to have two gold medals and a World Cup.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Messi&#8217;s age, 36, wouldn&#8217;t be prohibitive as the Olympics allow three players over the age of 23 on each team.<\/p>\n<p>However, the forward is expected to take part in the Copa America earlier in the summer &#8211; meaning he&#8217;d be playing two international tournaments in a row in the middle of MLS&#8217; season.<\/p>\n<p>Messi, who won a gold medal with Argentina in 2008, has previously shown a strong affinity for the Olympics.<\/p>\n<p>As written by Mail Sport in 2020, Messi faced a huge battle that year to convince Barcelona to release him for the tournament.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, he later admitted to moping around during preseason training when he didn&#8217;t think he would be able to go, as club president Joan Laporta didn&#8217;t want him to.<\/p>\n<p>He was eventually granted permission by Pep Guardiola, and arrived back in Barcelona with a gold medal and motivated for the season ahead<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12680503\/Lionel-Messi-invited-play-Argentinas-Olympic-team.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lionel Messi is invited to play on Argentina&#8217;s Olympic team by Javier Mascherano, but Inter Miami star looks doubtful to participate with Copa America during the same summer Lionel Messi won a gold medal with Argentina in the 2008 Olympics And he could have the chance to repeat the feat next summer in Paris DailyMail.com [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294537,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - 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